april

Fried squash, puy lentils with red pesto, garlic, chilli, spinach, croutons

Chocolate tart with beetroot puree

Sauteed jerusalems, hazlenuts, lemon and breadcrumbs, mint

Salad of wild garlic, new potatoes, marinated anchovies, purple sprouting

Cod wrapped in Parma ham, chorizo, tomatoes, satuee courgettes, potatoes

Christmas fruits, creme fraiche, shortbread

Salad of purple sprouting and cauli, steamed. Sauce of mayo, roast garlic, fried walnuts, chilli

Sausages, leeks, new potatoes, lime pickle

Lunch: Spag with bacon, red pesto

Dinner: Mum and Derek

Slow roast 5-spice pork; greens and onions; new pototoes

Citrus Cheesecake

This is Nigel Slater's recipe, from the Kitchen Diaries, April. It didn't seem to be cooking convincingly at 140/gas 1 so I turned it up to Gas 2, and t took 1 1/2 hours. It is really nice.

Lunch: Ate out

Winter greens with oyster sauce, chinese noodles

Greek salad: lettuce, olives, feta, tomatoes

I added a drop of Pernod to the salad dressing

Grilled aubergine slices, minced lamb & tomato & spices, fried potatoes

Celeriac and Parma ham gratin, salad, bread

Raspberries, creme fraiche, chocolate biscuit base

Crush 2 shortbread biscuits, melt a little chocolate (4 squares) with some cream, mix it together. Make 2 balls and roll them out between 2 sheets greaseproof paper, then put in the fridge to harden. I think they were in for 15-20 minutes. This works, and it works well. It's laughably easy for such a nice thing. We thought next time we could put the bases in those foil tartlet tins.

Simon and Amelia

Wild garlic soup

Chicken legs, porcini, field mushrooms casseroled, purple sprouting, curly pasta

Cheesecake

Cashel Blue

Corn pancakes, harissa, mayo, mint

1 small potato, boiled and mashed, 1 tbs egg, 4 oz sweetcorn, 1 tbs flour, 1tbs polenta, a little cream. Puree everything except half the sweetcorn then add this to the batter. Fry

5-spice pork, green beans, noodles

YP beetroot and horseradish soup

Lamb chops, sauce of tomato-olive-cream, tagliatelle

Lunch: squash scone with feta and bacon

This was Nigel Slater's recipe from the newspaper a week or so ago. He suggests it as a breakfast dish, but it took about half an hour to make. It works well with the feta : the sharp saltiness of the cheese contrasts the sweet soft scone

Dinner: Nigel and Carolyn

Corn pancakes, guacamole

Braised beef with red kidney beans and red peppers; watercress; roast new potatoes

1 tsp cumin, 6 allspice berries, a little sweet paprika and a little smoked paprika, a little bacon. I used some stock in the cooking liquid too. It was nice. I have made loads of it.

Greek orange and almond cake, greek-style yoghurt

Delia Smith's recipe.

Lincolnshire Poacher, Stinking Bishop, the ewe's cheese from Berkshire whose nam escapes me, Cashel Blue

Lunch: Ate out

Dinner: Lamb meatballs, aubergine, pea shoots, ciabatta

Lamb spices : chilli and cumin. Aubergine : diced small, marinated in ginger, garlic, soy, then fried

Avocado, couscous with mint, shallot, garlic, lime juice, avocado oil; pea shoots

Cassoulet with porcini, mushrooms, chorizo; watercress; ciabatta

Tandoori squash, dhal, lime pickle, rice

Dhal spices: whole cumin, coriander, fennel, mustard, kalonji, with tamarind

Baked pears with vanilla sugar

Salad of peas in garlic mayo, pea shoots

Beef and beans, quinoa with cilantro

Jerusalems, chestnuts in hazlenut sauce, spinach, new potatoes

Blanched some hazlenuts then fried them in butter. Cruchsed half with 3 huge cloves of roasted garlic, then added some stock. The chestnuts were from a vac-pack, from the freezer. The Jerusalems I scrubbed, then boiled whole for about 5 minutes, then cut into pieces and sauteed.

Christmas fruits, cream/yoghurt, amaretti

Ate out

Lunch: Dhal with spinach and feta, rice

Dinner: Diana and Martin

Wild garlic soup

..with flower buds as garnish. They are very garlicy

Hare in chocolate sauce; carrots in butter, bulghar wheat

Vanilla pannacotta with PX and toasted pine kernels

Cheeses as last weekend

Lunch: tagliatelle with hare sauce

I had made stock with the manky bits of hare. I scraped off all the bits of meat - which was a fair amount. Reduced the stock. Made a sauce with it and the meat, with onion, garlic, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, tomato puree, agrodolce.

Confit of duck, beetroot, ginger and chilli, peas, rosti potatoes

WR apricot and almond tart

Grilled aubergine, red pesto, ciabatta

WR apricot tart

Tracey ate out

Lambs' kidneys in sherry with pink peppercorns, purple sprouting, new potatoes

Quince and cream

Mushrooms, porcini, chestnuts in cream with truffle oil, carrots in butter, new potatoes

WR apricot tart

Much the same as monday, I think

Tracey ate out

Ate out

Dinner: Ate out

Dinner: Steamed purple sprouting and carrots, feta and garlic, harissa

Spag with tomtatoes, cream, basil

Chicken, chorizo, peppers, tomatoes, sautee potatoes

Poached pears with ginger and sichwan pepper syrup, cream

South Shields Crab soup, croutons

Aubergine slices with red pesto, Roast peppers with chevre, hazlenuts, spinach; rocket and watercress; ciabatta

Thai yellow curry of chicken and enoki, pak choi, rice

Pineapple in rum